Skil-Shimano's Marcel Kittel launched his sprint with 100 meters to go in the final stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk to take his fourth stage win out of five tries. He easily beat Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux), who was unable to get into the slipstream of the young German. A little further down the road, a jubilant Thomas Voeckler crossed the line, having secured the overall win in Dunkirk. The final stage ran from Grande-Synthe to Dunkirk over 175 kilometers.
Kittel had a dream of a week. "This is unbelievable. I am really happy and proud of the whole team," he said to French television immediately after crossing the line. "They worked so hard this last week, it is great we were able to celebrate four times." Kittel knows that building up a nice palmarès is also good for his career. "This is great for me personally, too," he said.
Easily running away from a fast man like Hutarovich certainly will make it interesting on how Kittel can do in bigger races. He fought hard in yesterday's hilly stage but asked if he'd come back for overall victory, he admitted the challenge of the task. "It is difficult to say. Yesterday [stage four] was really hard. Thomas Voeckler showed how much time one can put between himself and the bunch. Maybe in the coming years, when I have more experience, it is possible. Now, I am just happy with four stage wins." He also took the red jersey for best sprinter home.
Voeckler was also all smiles after his win. "I am content and really proud," he said. "I said yesterday that this is a really nice event." He still thinks that way. The way the race developed was also ideal for the Frenchman. "It was necessary to control the race. There was a break of six riders, but the first one on GC was already well down. So the sprinters's teams worked, which was ideal for us."
The fast men worked like a clockwork, catching the final breakaway rider, Saxo Bank's Jaroslaw Marycz just after the flamme rouge indicating the final kilometer. Marycz's director Dan Frost was pleased with the attacking style of his rider. "It's rather unbelievable that other teams want to do all the pulling from Skil-Shimano when they know, Kittel is the big favorite on the line. But it's so good to have a guy like Jaro on the team who just keeps on going even though he is really dead tired. His future looks bright,” said Frost after the stage.
Voeckler had not especially marked the race in his calendar. "I take the races as they come. I always want to be competitive." He has another motivation, as the team came close to folding last year. "[Sponsor] Europcar saved us at the end of last year."
A six-man break crashes down to four
The first ten kilometers were ridden very fast, but then four riders - Jaroslaw Marycz (Saxo Bank), Dominique Rollin (Française des Jeux), Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) and Nicolas Bazin (Big Mat-Auber 93) - managed to slip away. Julien Fouchard (Cofidis) and Julien Vermote (Quick Step) realized this was the move and at km 17, there was a six-man front group with an advantage of 1'50 over the peloton.
At km 50, the gap had shot up to 5'20, with Bazin grabbing the only KOM of the day, ahead of Engoulvent and Fouchard (km 52.9). This also marked the point of a slowly declining gap for the half-dozen strong front group.
At the feed zone at km 88, the advantage was down to 4'35. When the front runners entered the seven-kilometer circuit that was to be done nine times, the gap was reduced to four minutes.
At the first sprint at kilometer 133, Rollin beat Fouchard and Bazin. The first two then managed to crash, leaving four men in front. The gap was down to two minutes, with 42km remaining.
Vermote took the second sprint ahead of Bazin and Engoulvent after 147.5 kilometers, with the advantage down to 1'10. With two laps to go, the four leaders still had 35 seconds on the peloton, led by Skil-Shimano and Europcar. The quartet entered the final seven-kilometer lap with a 26-second cushion over the bunch.
As they went alongside the beach for the final time, the bunch had come agonizingly close and Marycz jumped ahead to try for a solo victory. He resisted a long time but just under the red keit it was over for the man from Poland.
Results stage five:
1. KITTEL Marcel SKS
2. HUTAROVICH Yauheni FDJ
Final general classification
1. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar)